


I Don’t Mind Falling, So Long As I Land Here

by TheYaoiChick



Series: Seasons Change -- New Lives In The Making [3]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Don't copy to another site, F/M, First Meetings, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-18 00:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20630207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheYaoiChick/pseuds/TheYaoiChick
Summary: On the trip to visit the Spring Kingdom, Mother Nature decides to play match maker.The beginnings of Hunith and Balinor.





	I Don’t Mind Falling, So Long As I Land Here

**_Boom!_ Lighting is crashing all around them, winds rushing by so fast he sees his fingers have gone white clutching the the harness though he’d lost feeling in them long ago. The rain blinding him and he can no longer see more than three feet in front of his face. The thunder too loud to be heard over. But still he tries,**

  
**“Kilgharrah we need to land! Before we crash!”**

  
**He doesn’t hear him. They dive as another lightning bolt strikes near them and Balinor hopes it means Kilgharrah had had the same idea. He doesn’t get the chance to find out as Kilgharrah turns sideways to avoid a flock of panicked birds and Balinor loses the fight with his grip.**

  
**He falls with scream caught in his throat.**

  
When he comes to he all he sees is a roof of a cave over his head. “_Kilgharrah must have found me quickly,_” he thinks, though he finds it hard to concentrate with the pounding in his head. When he reaches up to rub his temple in an effort to relive it his hand touches bandages. Well. That rules out Kilgharrah. He tried to sit up, ignoring the burning in his chest and ache in his rips and leg as he does so, and looks around the cave for the person who must have saved him. As he sits he realizes he’s also only wearing his small cloths.

  
There’s a medical kit on the side wall and a rolled up blanket next to it. He sees that beside him are berries and stew, though he sees nothing that it could have been made with. No sign of his cloths and also no sign of another person. He hears birds chirping and little else which can only mean that the storm has finished as well.

  
“_Could they have gone home after saving me? Wouldn’t they have at least stuck around to see their efforts weren’t in vain. Or want some reward for saving a prince?_” he thought. He cautiously picks up the stew, years worth of lectures about not eating food from someone you don’t know quickly being out weighed by his hunger. And judging by the pain he felt, he wouldn’t be getting his own food for some time. As he eats, other than wishing that bread had been provided to soak up the stew, he begin to wonder how far he landed and if Kilgharrah had landed safely or if he’d have to wait until he was healed enough to go find him.

  
Granted, that's if the Spring Kingdom doesn’t send an embassador to find out why he never showed.

  
He can already hear the lectures and whining that his father and his advisors are sure to dish out when he returns. Almost makes him consider trying to leave now, pain or no pain cloths or no cloths.

  
Just when he tries to stand,

“Don’t try to move just yet. You’re very injured and the best I could do was bind them. You won’t be leaving for some time I’m afraid.”

  
He turns his head to see a beautiful woman walking towards him, a basket hanging from her arm.

  
“I need to relive myself,” he said, flush staining his cheeks. Of all things to say to a pretty lady, _that’s_ his first impression.

  
“Of course, here let me help you at least. You can lean your weight on me to put the least amount of weight on your injuries,” she says as she places the basket next to the medical kit and blanket.

  
“Oh no, no no that’s not necessary. Besides which it isn’t proper, you’re a lady,” he tries. If the embarassment of this moment doesn’t kill him first he’s going to tie himself to Kilgharrah from now on whenever they fly.

  
“I’m afraid you don’t have much choice. You will not undo my hard work for the sake of your pride sir,” she says has she grabs his arm and begins to pull it around her shoulders to help him stand. Seeing the determination set on her face he knows a losing battle when he sees one. Face on fire, he resigns himself to the indignity and gets it over with.

* * *

“So how did you find me? You weren’t out in the storm yourself were you?” Balinor asked, watching as she rewraped his rips.

  
“I was. Not for very long though since I was close to this cave myself. And I didn’t so much as find you as you feel right in front of the cave opening. Frightened me half to death. Not everyday corpses just fall out of the sky,” Hunith-- she’d said her name was after helping him back into the cave-- said tucking the last round.

  
“Corpse? Did you bring me back to life?” Balinor asked amused.

  
“Perhaps I did,” she smiled. He couldn’t tell if she was teasing him. She had to right? Surely such magic didn’t exist. Before he could get to deep into complementation she continued, “You may not have been dead yet, but who wouldn’t have first thought that when a man falls from the sky? I’m still in a little shock that you’re this lightly injured all things considered.”

  
“Kilgharrah must have been closer to the ground then I’d thought. That combined with the trees I must have fallen through must have slowed my fall,” Balinor said.

  
“Kilgharrah?”

  
“A dragon. My flying partner to be exact. He was flying me to Spring Kingdom for a political meeting,” Balinor explained.

“Political meeting? You’re an embassador then? If you have a dragon then you must work for the royal family in the Winter Kingdom yes?” she asked.

  
“Well....no. I’m the Winter Kingdoms Prince,” Balinor said shocked. He knew in the outside villages and the regular citizens in other kingdoms that there weren’t many who would recognize his face but surely they’d have heard his name at least?

  
“The prince? Oh, oh! My mistake your highness,” she says as she rises to her feet to curtsey. Before he can tell her there was no need to be formal since she had saved his life she’d already walked back to her basket and opened it to reveal his clothes, cleaned and mended.

  
“Thank you! You really didn’t have to go through all this trouble,” Balinor said as she laid them next to him.

  
“It’s no trouble. And if I’d just left you, well, seeing as your a Prince that wouldn’t have been good for either of us now would it?” she asked with a raised brow. A disturbingly....familiar expression.

  
“Well no, no I suppose it wouldn’t. But you didn’t know that when you saved me so I think that says a great deal about your character,” Balinor said.

  
“I wouldn’t say that, anyone with a heart would have done the same. People are more giving and supportive then most nobles would have you think your highness,” Hunith said, sternly but not as if she were scolding him. And he could admit, she would be right. He knew a great many who would swear on their graves that the common people would sooner cook a meal over you while you were put a flame then walk three feet to the river to put you out.

  
Before he could say as much he begins to hear the furious sound of giant wings beating close to the cave opening, a sound he knows quite well. Kilgharrah had come for him.

  
“What on earth?” Hunith asked, hand held close to her chest.

  
“Don’t be afraid. It’s my flying partner Kilgharrah, he must have been searching any space save from the storm for me. I have to go now,” Balinor said, voice full of regret.

  
“Oh. Here let me help you get dressed, you shouldn’t move around to much or it will aggravate your wounds,” Hunith said, and Balinor doesn’t think he’s imagining the sadness in her voice. This meeting was too short by either of their standards, but Balinor knew his duty and as much as he wished to, he knew he couldn’t prolong his stay.

  
As she helps him outside, sending weary looks Kilgharrah’s way but keeping her resolve to help him even in her fear Balinor says,

“I know that I can not stay. But if you would allow me, I’d like to come visit you once my business with the Spring Kingdom is finished.”

“I’d like that. I’d like that very much,” she says, giving him the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen. He hadn’t even left yet, and he already misses her.

  
“Until then,” he says as he climbs Kilgharrah’s back.

  
“Until then.”

  
They lift off and Kilgharrah says, “I lose you for one day and you run off with a woman. Typical.”

  
Balinor feels no regret placing a patch of ice on the underside of his neck scales.


End file.
